Lights Cameras Action! Make Sausages!

Had President Trump and Minority (and soon to be Majority) leaders Pelosi and Schumer gone behind closed doors to hammer out some sort of deal to fund a border wall or border security or something in exchange for avoiding a shutdown of government, the purpose of the process would have been perverted or gamed by the spin they put on it afterwards.

And Pelosi and Schumer firmly believe that right now they can win any spin war with President Trump. They may be right about that and it is certainly the way the game has been played between the executive and the legislative branches over the past few generations, if not the past century.

Trump refused to play that game this week. With the cameras rolling he forced both sides to outline their positions and show the very clear policy differences between the Democrats in Congress and the Trump administration. Pence might not have been very comfortable with the process, but that also could be media looking to put a negative spin on an event that was meant to circumvent the inevitable post-negotiation spin. So, the story has been all about Trump's media circus, his reality-show politics. The look on Pence's face. And so on.

Nancy Pelosi at one point repeated her complaint that this was being done with the cameras rolling saying, "I don't think we should have a debate in front of the press on this."

While even on the face of it it's an absurd complaint, what Pelosi meant is that they shouldn't have a debate on this in front of the public.

There's essentially a two-track system in Washington D.C. You negotiate in private and spin in public. And the system is built around that duality. That's why Congress actually passes more legislation than one might imagine from following politics - even to someone who follows politics quite closely.

You see the fights because that's what they want you to see. You don't see the deal-making because they don't want you to notice, or remember, the deals they struck when the next election rolls around. They of course will spin the deal-making in order to gain any advantage they can over the other side and because highlighting the fights is a good fund-raising tool.

So here you had Pelosi and Schumer trying to spin the deal-making as the deal-making was going on.

Will this make deal-making impossible? Or is it a bridge that Trump has crossed and from which there is now no return? Will voters demand more public negotiating with all it's sweaty and ugly but predictable confrontations?

Isn't that the point of Congress?

To debate with the cameras rolling and with the record showing whatever proposal happens to have the floor?

Well, yes and no. Negotiations go private sometimes within Congress and between Congress and the Executive. So, Trump is trying to force a change in what are the practices of legislative sausage-making.

Good comments AllardK. Trump reminded Pelosi that the Democrats promised more government transparency. She just can’t handle the truth. LOL

Trump is playing these Democrat Leaders like a fiddle. Trump made certain that the public knows that these two supported border walls just a few years ago. There were silent when asked why their position has changed.

While I don’t want, or recommend, a steady diet of a public view into the sausage making, it is a useful technique for the president to use when necessary.

I relish the idea of sausage making in front of the cameras. I believe the public should be watching every minute of debate. Of course that is impossible, but that is what the media is being paid to do. They should actually do that, instead of monopolizing the 24 hours and 7 days they are on the TV.

The media has taken on the roll of star at center stage since the television came to be. The newspaper media held that spot before TV. Before the Progressive era started and the federal government assumed control of our lives, nobody gave a shit about what the federal government did. It was left to the states and it dealt with other countries. The federal government didn’t have their hand in the individual’s pocket before progressives took over.

Since it has a hand in our pocket we should be paying more attention to the federal government. We should see the sausage being made. Perhaps then we would start to doubt why they need 15% of our wage! We all know that’s what they’re really trying to protect, that 15%. Not us, they’re protecting our 15% contribution to their leisure.

But then again, the only reason we need borders is to protect our concept of what life should be like.

Did you ever hear of the proposal that we should give the land back to the native Americans? I was working with a guy who said he believed we should give the land back to the Indians. I laughed.

Why would a proposal like that get national attention? It has to be because it was an outrageous proposal. The question should be, “Why do we put up with these outrageous proposals dominating our freedom of the press?”.

The Destroyer of Civilizations, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, says we need to give everyone Medicare, or Medicaid, or whatever. She hasn’t got a clue how to fund it, and the media holds her up as the next goddess descending from the heavens to lead us into Utopia!

She hasn’t got a clue. I remember myself at 28. Ha! Since when do we elect a lack of experience to public office?

Are we done with saying our candidates must have experience to be qualified to run for office?

I guess that’s another positive we can give Trump credit for.

I’m going to throw all my support behind Cortez, The Destroyer of Civilizations! Viva! La Bonita!

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